Schoolchildren and a disabled resident will have to walk more than half a mile on an unlit, unpaved fast road after a bus service was re-routed - with the company bizarrely saying it was done "to address the poor existing punctuality and reliability".

Dawn Brown branded the change to part of the First Group's 87 route serving St Agnes set to begin on September 17 as "ludicrous" and said there has been little warning given.

She said the move, where buses will use alternating routes, will leave residents of Goonown and Goonbell with no service before 8am and only one bus every two hours during the day.

“The current bus stop at Goonbell is in a residential area with a low speed limit, pavements and a bus shelter, keeping passengers, including children, safe and reasonably dry,” she said.

Passengers will have to walk more than half a mile to the alternative bus stop

“The alternative route misses out the area where passengers live and uses a stop about a kilometre away at Presingoll. This is on an exposed road in the countryside with no shelter, pavements or street lighting, where speeds are frequently in excess of 60mph.

“As the new term started, catching the 7.25am bus at Goonbell were three regular commuters travelling to work, one of whom is disabled and cannot walk far, plus four schoolchildren, the youngest being 11.

“All of them said that the proposed new earliest bus at 8am would not get them to school or work on time. On winter mornings the children who use this bus to go to school will have to walk on a fast road, with no pavement, in the dark and may have to spend the school day in soaked clothes."

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She claimed the alternating between two different routes was tried several years ago and failed.

“On occasions drivers forgot which route was being used at what time of day and left people stranded," she added. "The unreliability of the existing hourly service with buses running very late or even missing will leave passengers in a quandary.

“The proposals are ludicrous, with the confusion of different routes for times of day and diverting buses away from where the people who want to catch them live, shows a complete lack of understanding and disregard for the needs of their passengers.

“Residents have taken jobs or school places on the basis that there is a bus service that they can use to get to work or school, with almost no notice they are being expected to try and make other arrangements. Some have paid for a bus pass without being told that the bus they catch use will no longer be serving the stop.

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“This is the latest of a number of changes in the last six months. Firstly, there was an increase in fares in May this was followed by changing a return ticket which had been valid for five days to one lasting just 24 hours.

“This route has also had multiple service issues, including buses which were missing leaving people to wait for an hour and then not be able to catch the next bus as it was already full.

“Surely the aim of public transport to serve the public by routing buses to where passengers live at a time when people are likely to need to travel.”

A spokesman for First said: “The forthcoming changes to service 87 are designed to address the poor existing punctuality and reliability of this important route, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and attracting more customers.

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"It also took into consideration additional analysis of travel demand, and during the Monday to Friday period the most popular journeys have been retained in the revised timetable.

“We recognise that some passengers will be inconvenienced as a result of the changes. This is very unfortunate, but the priority for this service is to address the fundamental problems that were hampering the service’s performance.”